Its there in Debian-descended distros as well (at least, its in Linux Mint Debian Edition, and thereforelikely is present in Ubuntu and the main Mint distro), along with a lot of other interesting calendars.

Did Galadriel bump-off Gandalf and send the Fellowship off without him for shiats and giggles, or maybe the Balrog just flew in to Lorien and killed Gandalf for trespassing after the fact?

Besides that fark-up, you need ...

Nerd-boy's right. The Fellowship didn't enter Moria until the 13th, and Gandalf fell of the bridge on the 15th. Depending on how you define "passing", he finally killed the Balrog on the 25th, came back to his body February 14th and got the Eagle Taxi to Lorien on the 17th.

Did Galadriel bump-off Gandalf and send the Fellowship off without him for shiats and giggles, or maybe the Balrog just flew in to Lorien and killed Gandalf for trespassing after the fact?

Remember that Gandalf and the balrog did not die immediately.

They fought after plunging into a subterranean lake. The balrog fled after Gandalf obtained the upper hand, and eventually ascended to the peak of Zirakzigil after eight days. There they fought again for two days, before the balrog was slain and Gandalf himself died.

But yes, the dates seem to be off, compared to other chronologies based upon Tolkien's writings. For example, most chronologies state that Jan 15 was the date of the standoff between Gandalf and the balrog on the bridge of Khazad-dum, and that Jan 25 was the date of Gandalf's death.

DjangoStonereaver:Its there in Debian-descended distros as well (at least, its in Linux Mint Debian Edition, and thereforelikely is present in Ubuntu and the main Mint distro), along with a lot of other interesting calendars.

I just checked. Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise) has it, as well as several other calendar data files. It's probably been there for years without anyone really noticing...

As a the Grey Wizard he was equal to a Balrog, but he did have a ring of power to help him and a Gondolin sword.

As a White Wizard, we are not sure if he would have beaten the Witch King. The movies suggests no, but the book is different. As if JRR didnt want to reveal who would win, I think Gandalf would have, but it would have been deus ex.

Clash City Farker:As a the Grey Wizard he was equal to a Balrog, but he did have a ring of power to help him and a Gondolin sword.

As a White Wizard, we are not sure if he would have beaten the Witch King. The movies suggests no, but the book is different. As if JRR didnt want to reveal who would win, I think Gandalf would have, but it would have been deus ex.

In 'Bored of the Rings', Gwahir* had a banner reading 'Deus ex machina Airlines', which seemed appropriate.

DjangoStonereaver:Its there in Debian-descended distros as well (at least, its in Linux Mint Debian Edition, and thereforelikely is present in Ubuntu and the main Mint distro), along with a lot of other interesting calendars.

I'd be interested in seeing some of the better ones. Maybe someone has a site listing them? Too lazy to Google.

Yeah, it has been around for a long time. It's a data file for a program called "calendar" which prints significant events for the current day (or for the next week etc. depending on how you call it). It would often be found in your .login script.

Clash City Farker:As a the Grey Wizard he was equal to a Balrog, but he did have a ring of power to help him and a Gondolin sword.

As a White Wizard, we are not sure if he would have beaten the Witch King. The movies suggests no, but the book is different. As if JRR didnt want to reveal who would win, I think Gandalf would have, but it would have been deus ex.

Gandalf undoubtedly had much greater overall power. He was a Maia, wielding an elf-forged Ring of Power and Glamdring, sword of Turgon, King of Gondolin. The Lord of the Nazgul was likely a Numenorean mortal, wielding a Ring of Power considered to be of lesser puissance compared to that of Gandalf's.

Would the Witch-King have been able to defeat the balrog of Moria, as Gandalf did? Gandalf barely won that fight. The Ring of Fire probably helped ward off some of the balrog's signature fire-based attacks. If he did not have Narya, he might have been defeated. The Nazgul was not as dependent upon inflicting thermal damage, thereby negating some of the advantage Gandalf's ring granted against the balrog.

Ivo Shandor:t3knomanser: That's not an OSX easter-egg. OSX inherited it from BSD.

Yeah, it has been around for a long time. It's a data file for a program called "calendar" which prints significant events for the current day (or for the next week etc. depending on how you call it). It would often be found in your .login script.

OriginalGamer:theurge14: So what are the steps to remove this nerdy infestation from my computer?

Well, the file is like a few bytes, but if its really bugging you, at the Terminal:

sudo rm -f /usr/share/calendar/calendar.lotr

Should do the trick.

It looks you're trying to trick me into formatting my harddrive. You silly pranksters! Besides, I thought about it and concluded that by removing anything from the geeky underpinnings of this magic computer box would harm its ability to function on nerd pixie dust. I'll just leave it and try to forget it's there.

Tillmaster:Clash City Farker: As a the Grey Wizard he was equal to a Balrog, but he did have a ring of power to help him and a Gondolin sword.

As a White Wizard, we are not sure if he would have beaten the Witch King. The movies suggests no, but the book is different. As if JRR didnt want to reveal who would win, I think Gandalf would have, but it would have been deus ex.

In 'Bored of the Rings', Gwahir* had a banner reading 'Deus ex machina Airlines', which seemed appropriate.

*he was actually called 'Gwahno'.

Heh. ‶How It Should Have Ended" takes that even further and points out that the Quest could′ve been done much more quickly and without anyone dying, if only anyone at Rivendell including Gandalf himself had remembered that he and Gwaihir were best buds.